Learn how to watercolor!

maybelle imasa-stukuls watercolor via besotted blog

This gorgeous shot popped up in my feed the other day, created by none other than the wildly talented Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls, I think a lot of people only know her as a calligrapher but she is a brilliant artist as well! Of course this made me want to try my hand at watercolor, I’ve been wanting to for some time I do have a nice set that I got a few holiday’s ago. I had been meaning to sign-up for a local class, but seriously when will I find a watercolor class that I can take either at 7:30 a.m. or 10p.m.? I found one! Yao Cheng, watercolor artist is now teaching a very comprehensive watercolor class at Creative Bug.  It’s very detailed, filled with tons of little tips + tricks. I have perused many a book and even did a bit of Googling and this class feels very accesible. I just started watching so I haven’t had a chance to begin a project, but I now feel like it’s possible to give it a go. What about you?  Have you ever tried watercolors? Any advice?  Have you taken this class yet? Creative Bug is now a very affordable $4.95/mo. but you can also get a 2 week free trial which gives you plenty of time to take many of their classes, in a try before you buy sort of way.

P.S. Love the lettering on this photo and want to learn how to do that yourself? Maybelle teaches an on-line calligraphy class here.

//RESOURCES//

Creative Bug

Maybelle’s Calligraphy Class

Watercolor Class

Schmidt watercolors (the one’s that Maybelle used for the image)

Yao’s Watercolor tutorial on the Alison Show

photo by maybelle imasa-stukul

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the co-creator of the world’s best + easiest product photography tool-Foto Rx | Shopkeeper’s Helper and one of the writer’s of this delightful blog. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.

Surface pattern design class


An Online Skillshare Class by Bonnie Christine
In the midst of all the hoopla surrounding our Foto Rx | First Aid Kit launch I saw a class that sparked my interest. Now you may be wondering how I can find time to take a class when I am busy with an active toddler, a new business, my existing business and this here blog. I do not have hired help or a clone of myself, so I watch a little bit here and there before I go to bed on my Kindle. I recently saw that Bonnie Christine of Going Home to Roost launched a new Skillshare class-Intro to Surface Pattern Design. For those of you not familiar with Bonnie she is a very popular blogger and a very successful (and prolific) surface pattern designer.  I actually have been a reader/fan of Bonnie’s for a long while now and have been amazed at the trajectory of her career. It is all well deserved as this woman does not stop creating, she is always doing new projects, adding new and exciting offerings to her blog (I have mentioned her Roost Tribe before as a great resource) and still manages to have that work/life balance we are all striving for. I knew I had to take this class!  What I didn’t expect, (but should have) was how dynamic Bonnie’s course was going to be. It is far more than just a surface pattern design class, it is a quick + easy intro to Illustrator (even if you have no experience in Illustrator you’ll be able to use it once the course is through), absolutely inspiring + motivational (in a totally authentic non-cheesy way) and of course an incredibly comprehensive course on surface pattern design. I called Michelle the next day and told her that I was thoroughly inspired and if I ever taught a Photoshop class I would love for it to have the same effect on my students. One of my favorite bits of the course was when Bonnie was recollecting about starting her blog and reaching out to a blogger with a large following and the blogger emailing her back and saying, ‘welcome, there’s room for you!’. Bonnie re-iterates that and tells you that the world needs your art/design, which I feel is such a call to action and motivating. It’s so easy to be an Eyeore and think, ‘Ah, the market is saturated, I wish I did this or that before the market got so saturated, now I could never do it.’ Oh, contraire, Bonnie believes you can (so do I), so today is the day, you need to get started on your dreams my friends, the world is waiting for you.
P.S. Bonnie has graciously given us the code BESOTTED so the first 50 readers can sign-up and take the class for free, click here!

The Mega List of How-to Digitize Your Lettering Tutorials

 

how to digitize your hand lettering via besotted blog

This seems to be the most requested tutorial here, I understand the desire especially if you have been dipping your toes in the hand lettering pool and now want to be able to showcase your work to the world! I hope I have rounded up enough tutorials to thoroughly get you through this process. Some of these tutorials will be step-by-step, others videos, of course some may be better than others but they all have great information to glean and I hope you find this post to be a useful future resource. If you have any questions please let us know!

//FREE DIGITIZING LETTERING TUTORIALS//

Hand lettering from pencil sketch to digital graphic

Making your lettering into a vector graphic

 Making your lettering available for web*

A beginner’s guide to spiffing up your hand lettering

Using the calligraphic brush to create decorative type

Hand lettering in Illustrator (this is great for learning about the Wacom tablet settings)

How to digitize brush or hand lettering

How to digitize your calligraphy

*Note her tutorial reads to save as a ‘gif’, but I always save as either a .png or .jpeg for web unless the graphic is animated then I use the .gif file format

//PAID DIGITIZING LETTERING CLASSES/TUTORIALS//

Photoshop for Lettering Artists (our super newbie class)

Digitizing your calligraphy with Molly Suber Thorpe

Introduction to the Wacom tablet

How to turn your handlettering into vectors

Digitizing hand lettering: creating organic and precise vectors

Lettering II by Mary Kate McDevitt

//RESOURCES/TOOLS//

These are some of the tools that you will need or read about in the tutorials that will help make your digitizing life a whole lot easier.

Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements

Adobe Illustrator

Wacom tablet (there’s entry level versions that are affordable)

Scanner

Lettering Supplies

P.S. That awesome font ‘lettering’ is in is available here

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and one of the writer’s of this delightful blog. She lives in sunny Seattle with her handsome husband, wonderful baby girl and two pups. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.

Kal Barteski brush lettering class!

Kal Barteski Class via Besottedblog

This class mention is bittersweet for me.  I am a fan of the very talented artist Kal Barteski  (she created the iconic ‘link with love’ button you often see on blogs), so much so when I was 8 months pregnant and discovered she had an on line class I bought it within seconds and waited with bated breath to get my access key to start.  I knew with the baby coming soon I wouldn’t be able to do much lettering or class taking and after being so sick it seemed like the perfect opportunity.  Unfortunately, I received an email the next day with a refund (insert sad face here), Kal had taken her class down and was going to revamp it, it never happened before I welcomed my little one and it seems like it will be forever before I can do any lettering again*. But you my friends can take Kal’s revamped class and I am sure it will be so, so good! Kal teamed up with the wonderful folks at Studio Calico and the class looks like it’s going to be an amazing one! I do hope you take it and report back to me and if you end up getting hooked on the Studio Califco goodies in their shop, I would love to see what you create! Take the Kal Barteski life scripted class here!

P.S. Studio Calico makes it even easier to take the class by allowing you to buy the supplies straight from their site. I LOVE this idea, no fumbling with inadequate supplies or roaming the art store aimlessly, just one click and you are ready to roll!

*Okay, so I am in enrolled now, it may be a little ambitious, perhaps, just maybe, but Alisa Burke has inspired me to create with baby, wish me luck!!!

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and one of the writer’s of this delightful blog. She recently lives in sunny Seattle with her handsome husband, wonderful baby girl and two pups. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.

Keep it Classy

Keep it Classy via besottedblog.com

This weekend, I will be attending a photo workshop taught by the divinely talented Luisa Brimble and hosted by Aran Goyoaga! Woo! With so much talent in one room, I am fully expecting to lose the ability to speak proper English, but hopefully I can keep my wits about me enough to Instagram some juicy tidbits for you!

Autumn is a natural time to want to invest in our passions and sharpen our skills. Tristan and I both have the learning bug right now and have been bookmarking our dream classes left and right. If we could spend loads of time traveling to classes and workshops over the next couple of months, here are the gems that would make our list. If you’ve taken classes from any of these instructors, spill it – we love to live vicariously!

PHOTOGRAPHY

Ashley Woodson Bailey

October 15, Georgia

Multiple dates in December, Australia

Beth Kirby / LocalMilk

Venice is sold out, but she does have Japan, Australia, and Lisbon on her future retreats list…

Aran Goyoaga / Cannelle et Vanille

November 8 and 9, Madrid

Film is Not Dead

November 11-13, Hawaii

STYLING

Megan Morton

Tons of dates! Australia

LETTERING 

Maybelle Imasa Stukuls  (Get into the spirit by reading Maybelle’s Besotted interview! Part I and Part II).

October 11, Brooklyn

November 15, San Francisco

Laura Worthington (Laura’s Besotted interview Part I and Part II)

October 15, Seattle

Stephanie Fishwick (Stephanie’s Besotted interview Part I and Part II)

November 16, Virginia

VIDEO

The Hill Workshops

There aren’t any upcoming dates listed, but take a look at their previous workshops and you’ll see why they still made the list!

There have to be more out there, what goodies have we missed??

P.S. That classy font can be found here.

Author / Miss Michelle P.

Miss Michelle P. is a photographer, designer and co-professor for Souvenir Foto School. She lives in the Pacific Northwest. Her muse is light.

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